With three clubs through, gloriously, to the FA Cup semi-finals and two, dismally, in administration, these are contradictory times for the Football League. Fans are flocking to support the clubs in greater numbers than at any time since the 1960s, yet for some, this remains far from a golden era.

In the Championship, West Bromwich Albion are among a group of notably well-run clubs which have profited from spells in the Premier League, while the recent takeovers of Coventry City and Ipswich Town were distress sales of clubs struggling to pay their debts. At Cardiff City, euphoria at beating Middlesbrough in last Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final has provided light relief from the forthcoming court battle over £24m of loans hanging over the club Peter Ridsdale chairs. Leeds United, Ridsdale's former club, are disputing the League's 15-point penalty imposed for failing to agree a settlement with 75% of creditors after Ken Bates put Leeds into administration last year. Bournemouth and Luton Town are currently in administration and nobody will be surprised if at least two other clubs join them before March is over.

While all these collapses have their own individual tales, all the insolvencies share shades of Ridsdale's classic explanation when the party ended at Leeds: "We lived the dream." Gerald Krasner, the insolvency accountant who succeeded Ridsdale as Leeds' chairman and inherited the £100m debts, is now Bournemouth's administrator.

"No club is in as much debt as Leeds," he reflects, "but they all spent money on players which they did not have, and they did not think about what would happen if the plans did not work out."

Bournemouth's current insolvency, with debts of around £4m including £700,000 in unpaid tax and VAT and approximately £800,000 owed to the usual long list of creditors likely to receive very little, makes a grim spectacle. The Cherries were hailed as a new supporter-owned dawn for lower-division clubs back in 1997 when the club was brought out of a £5m receivership. The fans had raised £150,000 towards settling the debts, and the money was put into a trust fund which held 51% of the club's voting rights.

After 2000, when Supporters Direct was formed to promote fan ownership, the Bournemouth model was modified so that a democratic supporters' trust took over the club's golden share. But years of commitment and voluntary effort by fans nationwide has delivered two tough lessons: first, that widespread supporter ownership of senior clubs along the lines of Barcelona's glorious tradition is not realistically possible, given the cost of buying even small clubs. Second, involvement by fans does not in itself provide a solution to clubs' innate tendency to overspend chasing the game's prizes. Supporters Direct itself has moved towards promoting good governance and financial management at clubs, alongside increased supporter involvement.

Some clubs are habitually well run, but the Football League is a mosaic of circumstances, with the temptation to overspend almost written into its structure. Clubs relegated from the Premier League receive millions of pounds in "parachute" payments for two seasons, a huge advantage over the others clamouring for promotion. Some senior clubs, like Sheffield Wednesday, remain saddled with long-standing debts; several, including Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and now Queens Park Rangers have wealthy owners prepared to underwrite ambition. Hull City, Swansea City and Doncaster Rovers were given new leases of life by local councils building new stadiums for them; others have moderately well-off backers, while many do their best to balance the books and still try to succeed in a lethally competitive environment.

The League itself points to the 10-point penalty for clubs which cut their debts by going into administration, wage limits in League One and Two, and the requirement that clubs publish agents' fees as evidence of significant reforms, allied to increased sponsorship and broadcasting deals. John Nagle, a Football League spokesman, said: "It is disappointing that two clubs have gone into administration this season but ultimately clubs are responsible for running their own financial affairs."

At Bournemouth, a cautionary tale, it did not take long after rebirth for the club to be in the mire again. The directors ran out of money while building a new stadium at their Dean Court home, which still has only three sides completed, and they then sold the ground itself to pay the debts. The club's most recent accounts, for the year to May 31 2005, are a horror story, itemising a club again owing £5m and struggling to survive. It owed £1.45m to a company connected to the club's president, Stanley Cohen; other directors had lent £515,000 plus £547,000 in a separate loan scheme; the club had borrowed £239,963 from bridging loan specialists Bristol & West Investments at 15.5% interest; owed £650,000 to Lloyds Bank and £250,000 to the council.

Supporters marched in protest against a plan to sell the ground floated by a previous chairman, Tony Swaisland; a new chairman, Peter Philips, launched a loan scheme and issued new shares, but could not stem the crisis and, in December 2005, Bournemouth did sell its ground to a London-based company, Structadene. Owned by David Pearl, who appeared as a sentimental-hearted property man on last year's Channel 4 show The Secret Millionaire, Structadene paid £3.5m for Dean Court. Bournemouth pay rent to play there, beginning in 2005 at £300,000 per year.

The £3.5m the club received went straight out, to pay off Cohen, Bristol & West, Swaisland, Lloyds Bank and the sponsors, Fitness First. That saved on future interest payments but left the club still in debt. Quite what has happened since is not publicly known because the directors have failed to file accounts which were due by March 31 last year.

Last February two businessmen, Jeff Mostyn and Steve Sly, offered to invest £750,000 in new shares into the club - the supporters' trust is unhappy because it has since emerged that the money actually went in as a loan. Kevin Bond was appointed the club's manager after he was sacked by Newcastle following the BBC's Panorama football programme, but even before administration, his team was battling for League One survival. It was also struggling to balance the books; last November Mostyn lent a further £110,000, then in February this year, the directors finally filed for administration and appointed Krasner. Barely two years after selling the ground as a last resort, Bournemouth are again insolvent. Creditors who dealt with the club will lose heavily, and the 10-point penalty has left the club adrift in the relegation zone.

Krasner expects to find a buyer for the club; he believes that Bournemouth, a club with a long history punctuated by some memorable highlights, can have a future, if run responsibly. "They'll have to realise they're never likely to be in the Premier League," he cautions, "try to make money in the 342 days in the year when there is no home game, and not spend money they haven't got."

In other words: reach for the stars, without living the dream.

Bother at Rotherham

The club most obviously in danger of following Bournemouth into administration is League Two's Rotherham United, which is in financial difficulties and no longer owns its ground. In 2005 the former chairman Ken Booth took ownership of Millmoor in return for writing off £3m he had paid in to run the club, which enjoyed four seasons at Championship level.

A supporters' trust briefly took over, then the club was sold to the local businessmen Dennis Coleman and Dino Maccio. They could not save it and in May 2006 the club cut its £3.7m debts with a company voluntary arrangement. That meant starting last season with a 10-point deduction, and the Millers were ultimately relegated from League One by 13 points. Last month the club announced an "intention to appoint an administrator," a formal process providing short breathing space from declaring insolvency again, while Coleman and Maccio try desperately to attract new investment.

This season has seen the side battling for promotion from League Two and they are still well placed to get into the play-offs. But after their surprise 1-0 defeat against Acrington Stanley earlier this month the manager, Mark Robins complained that his side had put in a "shocking performance, the worst I have seen for a long time", but then admitted: "I am angry, absolutely livid and that is not my team. We can't bring anyone else in due to the financial difficulties and we want players fighting for places."